I have been using smath 8.9 on ubuntu linux for months now and have collected a list of bugs and feature requests. It's lenghty, but I hope Andrey and everybody else finds them useful. Clearly Andrey has been busy behind the scenes as we never hear from him lately. I hope it is not because version 9 has turned out to be a monster that he cannot tame.

Feature requests: I would like

To be able to send messages to the forum from within smath as a convenience

Debug mode where Smath monitors all key strokes and mouse clicks and abnormal terminations
with a separate process. A "hang" button could be present in smath toolbar
and user presses it when a hang occurs and the separate process sends a report back to smath forum for analysis.
It could also try to save work in a temp file, restart smath, and recover the lost work (minus the last action)

Symbolic and numeric eigen functions/vectors/values fully supported

Superscripts using ctl-shift-dot to enhance variable name possibilities

Full support for Tensor formalisms, including upper-indexes (i.e., contravariant) using ctl-shift-opensquarebracket

Format option to allow imaginary number -i to show as exponent of e instead of interpreting symbolically as 1/e^i

A preference choice that sets Dyn assist to open automatically when clicking on a previously typed in variable -
also a keyboard command that causes it to open

Full symbolic algebraic simplification for matrix objects

A way to gray out an expression (turn off - and then turn it back on later) so it is ignored by the calculation engine -
this is good for debugging purposes and for trial and error refinement of calculation sheet

Submatrix icon that extracts a subrange of matrix, vector, or any order tensor -
it is similar to the determinant icon - it will insert showing defualt values as
rwmn = 0, rwmx = no. of rows in matrix, clmn = 0, clmx = no. of cols in matrix.
Index place holders can then be changed by user to desired submatrix range

...........(clmn)...(clmx)
(rwmx) |............|
............|.matrix.|
(rwmn) |............|

if tensor order is 3 or more, icon will have skew-stacked index ranges:

.................(Nmn)....(Nmx)
...............(...mn)..(...mx)
.............(3mn)....(3mx)
...........(clmn)...(clmx)
(rwmx) |............|
............|.tensor.|
(rwmn) |............|


Shortcuts for assigning symbolic elements to matrices - the main example I think of is:

M := e^i*A, where A is IxJ matrix (symbolic or numeric), so M becomes an IxJ matrix of e^i*a

also if I say M := [0--------...-----(J-1)*a---], using a 3x3, smath can figure it out for me
..........................[...-------...-------...-------]
..........................[(I-1)*a ... (I-1)*(J-1)*a]

The insert matrix dialogue not ever to appear; just put a 3x3 on the page and have it selected and
ready for dimension change

Evaluation/substitution icon as in calculus
df(x)|..........because df(a) substitutes a in before taking the derivative, giving wrong answer
------|.......................-----
..dx..|x=a...................dx

The worksheet respond to scroll wheel as soon as it is loaded, clicked on, or smath window
receives focus. Having to click twice before scroll is enabled is annoying

Feedback (3 seconds or more) to indicate to me that when I save my worksheet, that the save has been completed successfully

Triple clicking inside a comment selects the entire comment or current line (with 4 clicks for whole paragraph)

An upside-down delta symbol for gradient or nabla

An alternate color used for indices to distinguish from name subscripts -
and maybe matrix, vector, tensor variables, and scalars in matrix format to distinguish from scalar math expressions



Bugs:

Pages don't expand to full size properly when clicking the max button in upper right corner -
I have to click and then pull on lower right corner for the expansion action to occur
Shouldn't a page selected from the "Page" menu appear expanded by default anyway?

Smath hangs occasionally, though I haven't yet found the specific sequence of steps that cause it
(maybe there is more than one cause - we should have the entire community try to cause hangs and report back)
One cause is related to adjusting page size with mouse after selecting it from Page menu

When adjusting page size after selecting it from Page menu, cursor doesnt change shape to indicate active corner
or active edge of frame is presently beneath cursor

Pressing tab doesn't insert selected item from the dynamic assist

Pressing ctl-dot won't insert symbolic equal sign arrow: "->"

Backspace doesn't work when typing comments

Backspace is disabled in certain modes when editing equations

"Simplify" will not perform basic algebra to bring expressions into their simplest forms -
there probably needs to be a lot of formatting preferences so the user gets the kind of
simplified expressions he wants - shouldn't dynamic assist give a variety of common possiblities
when a given expression is simplified so the user can choose the style he wants? Smath could keep
track and adjust preference defaults and offer up choices that are consistent with what the user chooses most often.
One choice always provided should be "none given, get more options for me, please"
And another choice should always be "keep current expression"

Security image in forum is not always visible which makes it hard to post

Honored Guest